by Dean Cadman
But right at that moment, he couldn’t think of anywhere else that he would rather be.
As he submerged himself within the thick gas, the strange feeling slowly subsided and he began to relax a little. It was easy to see where the ground was using his mage-sight, as it glowed like the surface of the sun below him. He could also see the darkened area, where he had earlier recharged his own power reserves, and headed directly towards it. He doubted that anyone would have taken the gifts that he’d left there, but his curiosity still got the better of him. If they had, it would prove the existence of The Keeper, or at the very least someone else capable of entering the deadly gas. And if not, at least it would put his mind at rest knowing they were still there.
Sure enough, a few moments later he came across the small, undisturbed pile of gifts, exactly where he had left them. He wasn’t sure if he felt relieved or disappointed that they were still there, but he knew that it proved nothing either way with regards to the existence of The Keeper. He took a few steps away from the gifts and began to draw power from the fresh Soul Stones underfoot. Although he hadn’t used a great deal of his power reserves, he knew that he would feel much better knowing that he was at full strength before facing whatever lay ahead.
He bent down and picked up a handful of Soul Stones to place in his pocket, then paused, watching them glow brightly in his hand. He could feel the power within them pulsing like a rhythmic magical heartbeat. Did he really need to take any with him when he was already at full strength? After all, he could easily return and gather more power from them if he needed to. He also had no idea who, or what inhabited this side of the mountain. If they too saw the Soul Stones as sacred, like the orcs, there was no telling what would happen if they found out he had taken them. Then, of course, there was The Keeper. If he did indeed exist, and he discovered them in his possession, what would the consequences be? It simply seemed like too great a risk for such a small advantage, he thought, dropping the stones back onto the ground at his feet and setting off towards the edge of The Boundary.
Lusam emerged into the bright sunlight a few minutes later and the strange prickling sensation of being watched returned, albeit to a far lesser degree this time. He had already reverted to his normal vision before exiting The Boundary, and quickly scanned the treeline ahead for any signs of danger—but saw none. A quick glance skyward revealed no threat there either. Not a single wyvern graced the sky above. Instinctively, he slipped temporarily back into his mage-sight and scanned the treeline once more, but still saw nothing.
He shifted his feet uneasily and the sound of crunching Soul Stones broke the eerie silence. He froze to the spot and listened intently for any sounds of movement, and suddenly realised that he couldn’t even hear any birdsong, or even the croak of a distant frog.
Only silence filled the air.
For a while, it only added to his feelings of foreboding and unease. But then he remembered how the gas at the other side of the mountain had affected the wildlife over a large area. No doubt it would be the same at this side, he thought, taking another loud step towards the forest. He felt a Soul Stone shatter underfoot, and then another. He froze mid-stride and looked down at the ground, confused as to why they had broken. He had walked over thousands of them within the gas, and not felt a single one break. He lifted his foot and looked at the remains of the shattered Soul Stone. He felt a strange sense of guilt, and was about to levitate himself over the top of them all, when he noticed a few more were also broken. When he looked more closely, he began to see more and more shattered stones. And even the ones that weren’t already completely shattered had cracks running right through them. He slipped back into his mage-sight to examine them in more detail, and gasped out loud.
He was standing on what he could only describe as a massive beach of Soul Stones. It stretched for as far as he could see in either direction, and reached all the way towards the treeline of the forest ahead. Millions of them covered the ground. The amount of magic they must have contained was quite staggering, but that wasn’t what grabbed his attention the most. Tens of thousands of the Soul Stones had been destroyed, and no longer held any magic whatsoever. To his mage-sight, they stood out like dark patches of night, in a sea of gleaming light.
His mind struggled to comprehend the strange random patterns of destruction, and what could have caused it. For a moment he considered random lightning strikes, but the patches of darkness were far too numerous and uniform in shape for that to be the case. Then the terrifying truth of it suddenly occurred to him: someone, or something had fed on the Soul Stones and destroyed them, just as he had inadvertently done within The Boundary. Only these patches of destroyed Soul Stones were far larger than the one he had caused. Whatever had drained the Soul Stones here, had the ability to hold far more magic than he did—and that concerned him greatly.
He looked around at the area of destroyed Soul Stones where he was standing, and the true scale of it became clear to him. The circle of destruction was at least thirty feet across. But the one that he had unintentionally created himself was no more than five or six feet wide at most. As his mind tried to comprehend the enormity of it, he kicked at the broken Soul Stones absent-mindedly, and revealed something even more disturbing. The Soul Stones didn’t appear to be only one or two layers deep as they were inside The Boundary, but multiple layers instead. He crouched down and began to dig through them He was shocked to discover that they went far deeper than he could even reach with his arm, and every single stone that he saw had been completely drained of its power. Whoever, or whatever had done this, was far more powerful than him. He just hoped and prayed that they were no longer around. Or if they were, that he could at least avoid any kind of conflict, because he knew it would be a battle that he couldn’t possibly hope to win.
He carefully replaced the Soul Stones to hide any signs of him being there, then levitated himself slowly towards the treeline. The strange tingling sensation in his mind was still there, but thankfully it had not become any more intense since leaving The Boundary, and it was certainly nowhere near as strong as it had been whilst he was in the air above it. When he reached the edge of the forest he noticed that the Soul Stones suddenly stopped abruptly a few feet away from the nearest trees. He lowered himself back down to the ground and felt his feet immediately sink into the soft earth where he landed.
“Oh, great!” he said out loud, as he pulled his mud covered boot free again. Seeing his own footprint in the mud, he realised that it might not be a bad idea to see if he could find any evidence of who, or what had drained the Soul Stones. If he could find their footprints at least he would have an idea of what he might be facing later. He knew from seeing the images inside The Cave of Enlightenment that The Keeper had six legs, so confirming or eliminating him as a candidate should be simple, he thought.
He quickly levitated himself a few inches above the ground and began searching the edge of the forest for any signs of recent activity, but found absolutely nothing. Not even an animal track marred the soft earth. Whoever, or whatever had drained the Soul Stones, had not done so recently. Or at least they hadn’t in that particular area. There was no way of knowing if any of the more distant sites had been visited recently without searching the entire border of the forest, and he simply didn’t have the time for that.
One thing he did notice during his search, however, was just how dense the forest was on this side of the mountain. From the air, it had appeared to be a simple task to travel the five or six miles north-east, but from the ground, the reality of it was quite different. Navigating accurately through such a dense forest without any visual references would be almost impossible. He wondered if he could use the mass of Soul Stones to aid him, but quickly realised that they would only be helpful in guiding him back to where he was now. And without a prior visit to the destination in order to leave a Soul Stone or another magically imbued object—one which he could detect from a distance—there was simply no way for him to accurately navig
ate his way through such a dense forest.
The only other method that he knew of, was the one he’d used to keep track of Neala when she had been abducted by Skelly. But that time he’d had the benefit of being able to use one of her own enchanted knives to find the others that were being carried by Skelly. This time he didn’t have that advantage, and he also had no idea what other magical objects might be there to lock onto… unless.
“The Guardian book,” he gasped. He couldn’t believe that he hadn’t considered it before. After all, that was how he’d discovered the Guardian book in Coldmont, and he had been trying to navigate then, too. He had been attempting to find his way back to Helveel, and had used one of Neala’s enchanted knives to locate the book in Mr Daffer’s basement. But instead of locking onto the Guardian book in Helveel, it had detected the unprotected book in Coldmont. There was, of course, a strong possibility that the Guardian book he was looking for now would also be magically protected from detection. But there was also a slim chance that it would not—and any chance at all was better than none, he decided.
The problem was, he didn’t have a knife, or for that matter any other object that he could enchant to search for the Guardian book. But he knew exactly where he could find one. He distinctly remembered seeing an ornately decorated dagger amongst the gifts that he had left for The Keeper. He didn’t waste another moment and sped off in the direction of where he’d left it. A few minutes later he was back at the edge of the forest, nervously enchanting the blade with the locating spell he had once used before. Surely it couldn’t be as simple as that, he thought, as he searched for a flat rock to place it on.
After searching fruitlessly for several minutes, he decided to make a platform of his own instead. He created a small cylindrical magical barrier and plunged it a couple of inches into the soft earth. After fully enclosing it at both ends, he increased the temperature within the barrier, baking the mud inside rock hard. Then after quickly cooling it again, he released the new disc-like object into his hand. Now that it had been baked dry, it was barely more than an inch thick and weighed no more than the dagger he held in his other hand.
He decided to move a little way into the forest before attempting to locate the Guardian book, just in case the close proximity to the Soul Stones interfered with his spell somehow. He didn’t think that it would, but decided it was better to err on the side of caution all the same. A few hundred paces into the forest, he came across a fallen tree and placed the mud disc on top of it. A brief magical manipulation of the blade soon had it balanced perfectly, and he placed it in the centre of the disc. He formed the image of a Guardian book in his mind, and projected the image towards the enchanted knife.
It twitched slightly, then stopped.
At first, he thought his attempt to find the Guardian book had failed, or had at least been blocked by the same magical protections which kept the books in Helveel and Lamuria hidden. But after thinking it over for a few minutes, he realised that might not be the case at all. His understanding of the divination spell suggested that it, just like most other long-distance spells, used the magic in the surrounding air to make the desired connections. And as he was all too aware, magic within this realm was much scarcer than it was back in his own world. Maybe all the spell needed to work was more power, he thought, and quickly decided to give it a go.
He stepped forward and placed his hand over the dagger. Forming the image of a Guardian book in his mind, he built up a large charge of power, then released it steadily into the enchanted weapon. It immediately swung ninety degrees to the right, then reversed its course and swung ninety degrees to the left. He continued feeding his power into it, and the dagger’s movements increased accordingly. Faster and faster it swung from left to right, and back again. Its movement became a blur before his eyes, and then it suddenly stopped dead—and its tip pointed north-east.
Lusam gasped out loud. It had worked!
The Guardian book was here after all, and now he knew exactly where to find it. A fresh wave of optimism enveloped him as he set off into the forest. Soon he would gain the knowledge and power of the fourth Guardian book, and then he could finally return home to Neala—and hopefully close The Rift forever.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Lusam’s journey through the dense forest was painfully slow. He found no well-trodden paths or game trails like the ones on the other side of the mountain. Instead, he had to create his own, sometimes even having to resort to the use of magic to clear the stubborn roots and vines out of his way. It felt like the entire forest was working against him ever reaching his destination.
Although his progress through the forest was much slower than he would have liked, it was still far more comfortable now that he had the use of his magic again. He had decided to maintain a continuous magical shield around himself even before starting his journey. The main reason for this was Vultog’s earlier description of the most deadly creature in the forest—a Dast. He had no idea what a Dast even looked like—only that it was a small insect with an incredibly deadly sting. But there again, he had no intention of finding out, either, if he could avoid it.
Lusam also enjoyed two other advantages of maintaining a shield around himself. The first was the lack of scratches to his face, arms and legs that he’d previously suffered from the forest’s thorny vines, branches and undergrowth. But as far as he was concerned, the second advantage far outweighed anything else. He could now control the temperature within the magical barrier. No longer was he constantly sweating profusely. His clothes no longer clung uncomfortably to him, or rubbed his skin raw with every step he took. And that alone made his slow progress through the forest far more bearable.
Throughout his journey, the unnerving sensation of being watched continued unabated. He found himself almost constantly scanning the forest around him, expecting to see an ambush predator at any moment. But apart from various insects and the occasional small lizard-like creature, he saw nothing at all. As he became more accustomed to the strange sensation, he began to examine it in more detail and couldn’t help thinking that it felt somehow familiar. It was like hearing a song or a piece of music for the first time, but then realising that you’d actually heard the same notes played somewhere before, but were unable to remember exactly when or where.
Eventually, he found a way of blocking the sensation out altogether, and for a time, he more or less forgot all about it. That was until he used the clay disc and dagger again to check his direction of travel. As he channelled his magic into the dagger, he felt a distinct spike in the strength of the sensation. The first time it happened it took him by complete surprise and he abandoned his spell midway through, thinking that he was about to be attacked by something. But the moment he stopped channelling his power into the dagger the feeling immediately subsided, and he was left with only the faintest echoes of it in his mind.
Four times during his journey he used the dagger to orientate himself, and each time the unnerving sensation intensified. It soon became obvious to him that whatever was causing it, was using his own magic as a conduit to enter his mind. And he also didn’t think it was a coincidence that the feelings intensified further, the closer he got to his destination. In fact, he had begun to suspect that it was some kind of defensive measure to prevent people and animals from approaching too closely, and without his ability to block the feelings from his mind, it would have been very effective against him, too. He couldn’t even imagine a regular person or animal willingly enduring it, and felt certain they would have turned around and fled long ago.
A little while later, he noticed the ground beneath his feet begin to subtly change. It slowly became rockier and also started to slope downhill slightly. Usually, he wouldn’t have thought too much about it, but he suddenly realised that apart from The Sacred Mountain, this was the first deviation that he had seen in an otherwise almost perfectly flat landscape. The forest floor continued on a slight downward gradient for another several hundred feet, then it abr
uptly ended at what appeared to be a solid wall of foliage. It was one of the strangest things Lusam had ever seen. A solid wall of trees, vines and other plants completely blocked his path. Not even a trickle of light filtered through from the other side.
Intrigued, he slipped into his mage-sight to see if he could determine what lay beyond the barrier. He expected to see a hidden rock face or similar obstruction that had caused the trees and plants to grow in such a way, but what he found instead shocked him. He could clearly see that magic was being used on the other side. Apart from the Soul Stones, it was the first evidence of magic that he’d come across since arriving there. His mind reeled with the possibilities. Was this the home of The Keeper? And if it was, did he really want to come face to face with him? If he was the one—as he suspected—that was responsible for draining the massive areas of Soul Stones, could he hope to defeat him in a battle if he proved to be hostile?
He pushed his mage-sight beyond the foliage barrier as far as he could, but it revealed nothing more to him. If there was further magic being used there, it was either hidden to him, or out of the detectable range of his mage-sight. Back in his own world, he would have been able to clearly see everything beyond the barrier. But here almost everything was devoid of magic, so all he could see was a mass of indistinguishable greyness. One thing, however, was clear. Whoever had created the magical barrier against the forest, had used Soul Stones to power it. He could plainly see them hidden under the ground with his mage-sight. They had been placed in groups of four and spaced out equally along the entire length of the barrier. Possibly even more evidence that this was the domain of The Keeper, he thought, looking nervously at the solid wall of greenery before him.